State election preview: The battle for lieutenant governor

Tuesday

Oct 9, 2012 at 12:01 AMOct 9, 2012 at 2:05 PM

the Associated Press

RALEIGH — The race for lieutenant governor in North Carolina pits two candidates who've never before sought statewide office — a Tea Party favorite who is the son of a longtime Republican congresswoman against a state government insider and former aide to Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue.

Republican Dan Forest, the son of retiring U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick of Charlotte, is an architect who has leaned on his party's Tea Party and evangelical blocs. Democrat Linda Coleman, 63, has been a state worker for more than 30 years and was most recently Perdue's state personnel director before stepping down to run for the state's No. 2 office.

Coleman is a champion of the State Employees Association of North Carolina, or SEANC. the union for 55,000 state workers and retirees. SEANC and its national parent backed Coleman with nearly $400,000 for television and radio commercials, mailers, and signs to help her win the Democratic Party primary in May. That dwarfed the $66,000 Coleman reported raising through the end of June, according to documents filed with the State Board of Elections.

SEANC and the North Carolina Association of Educators, the state's main teacher lobbying group, remain lynchpins of her support even though North Carolina has the nation's lowest rate of union membership.

Forest's campaign reported raising $528,000 through the end of June, before he got fundraising help from Ralph Reed and Mike Huckabee, two leaders among Christian conservatives. Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate who now hosts a cable talk show, made a recent online video describing Forest as a “business person” and Coleman as a “union-backed career politician” who “has spent her entire working career working for the state.”

Forest, who turns 45 on Monday, then hands Huckabee a Chik Fil A sandwich while Forest sips a drink bearing the logo of the fast-food restaurant. The opposition of the fast-food company's president to same-sex marriage became a flashpoint in the country's culture wars.

“Just vote your values,” Huckabee says.

Coleman was one of the first North Carolina candidates to take a stand against a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, which voters passed in May.

Coleman said she's been a SEANC member for 28 years and that over a 33-year career in state government she's dealt with the organization as both a worker and a manager. She notes that state workers and other public employees don't have the right to bargain as a group over pay and conditions. The union directs its members and political-action money to sway politicians.

“We fight for middle-class families,” Coleman said. “They support me because I am an independent thinker who fights for the middle class. I have disagreed with them before and they don't expect me to agree with them on everything. I never agree with anybody on everything.”

She has criticized Forest for having “no political leadership experience to speak of” and supporting “a divisive, partisan agenda” that's taken shape since Republicans took control of the state legislature last year. Coleman served as a state representative for three terms and as a Wake County commissioner.

Lieutenant governors are elected independently from governors and the two offices can be held by members of opposing political parties.

The job has limited authority and exists mainly to identify who takes over if something happens to the governor, which has happened five times. The lieutenant governor also presides over the state Senate, sits on the state's community college and school boards and can be assigned other duties by the governor. The job pays $123,198 a year and is considered a stepping stone to higher office.

Forest promised that he would to work to eliminate the corporate income tax “and hopefully eliminate the personal income tax” that the state collects. He said he would use his position on the state school board to encourage home-schooling, as well as private and charter schools. He said he would fight illegal immigration and resist the Obama Administration's health insurance law.

Coleman said she would fight to restore cuts in funding to public education and sees herself as an “economic cheerleader” working to recruit businesses. She said she would set an agenda of supporting women on issues such as health care, education and equal pay if elected.